Distribution

Octave is free software. This means that everyone is free to
use it and free to redistribute it on certain conditions. Octave
is not, however, in the public domain. It is copyrighted and there are
restrictions on its distribution, but the restrictions are designed to
ensure that others will have the same freedom to use and redistribute
Octave that you have. The precise conditions can be found in the
GNU General Public License that comes with Octave and that also appears
in Copying.